PRISTINA -- A female student at a high school in Kosovo has been suspended for refusing to remove her hijab, the latest battleground in Europe over the traditional Muslim head scarf, which has been a hot-button issue across the continent in recent years.
The local education authorities and the Bedri Pejani academic high school in Peja, a town in western Kosovo, said they were merely enforcing a 2014 directive by Kosovo's Education, Science, Technology, and Information Ministry, which prohibits students from wearing religious attire on elementary- and secondary-school premises.
But critics, including the Islamic Community of Kosovo (KBI), the leading organization representing the country's Muslims, argue that the school and local officials have misinterpreted that directive, which they say is vaguely worded, and are violating the 18-year-old's human rights by denying her the right to an education.
After a complaint to police by the young woman's family, the local prosecutor's office in Peja is investigating whether the student's rights were violated.
Amid talks on lifting the suspension, Naser Gega, the head of the Peja branch of the Education Directorate, told RFE/RL's Kosovo Service on September 30 that the student -- referred to in Kosovar media reports only as "AD" although her full name is known to RFE/RL -- was still not back in classes. A "resolution," Gega said, was expected within days.
Kosovar Muslim women pray in a balcony inside the Hasan Beg mosque in Pristina during Friday Prayers. (file photo)
A year after declaring independence from Serbia in 2008, Pristina banned religious garb in primary and high schools, prompting protests by devout Muslims. The government defended the decision, saying that it was in line with the country's secular constitution.
Since then, the country's law on education has undergone several changes, including a directive in 2014 from the Education Ministry that further enshrined this ban.
Kosovo's constitution provides for freedom of conscience and religion, while the country's law on religion stipulates that there is no state faith. The vast majority of Kosovo's estimated 1.5 million people are Muslim but most embrace a fairly moderate and relaxed version of Islam.
SEE ALSO: 'Let's Just Be Albanians': A New Movement In Kosovo Calls On Muslims To Abandon IslamA more conservative brand of Islam, however, has been gaining ground slowly over the years since independence. And despite being few in number, advocates of a stricter branch of the faith have made their voices heard.
Last year, in the southern city of Prizren, members of the Muslim community spoke out over a performance by the Canadian singer Peaches, an outspoken feminist and idol of the LGBT community, that also spilled over into a protest over coverage of their demonstration by a local news website.
The wearing of the hijab has proved a hot-button issue in Europe for years. In 2004, France was at the epicenter of the debate when it banned the head scarf and "conspicuous" religious symbols from state schools. Since then, other countries in Europe have instituted similar measures.
'Unjust Ban'
Meanwhile, outright or partial bans on the hijab in educational institutions, the workplace, and public spaces have also been imposed in some EU countries, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, parts of Italy, the Netherlands (in public spaces), and areas of Spain's autonomous community of Catalonia.
A March 2022 report authored by the Open Society Justice Initiative -- a group of lawyers advocating for human rights -- argued such bans came into force after U.S. policymakers declared a global war on terror in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, giving rise to suspicions around Muslims due to their attire.
In July 2021, the EU's highest court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), ruled that employers can impose restrictions on the wearing of religious symbols, such as the hijab, in the workplace under certain conditions, especially if the job involves dealing with the public.
SEE ALSO: A Growing Split Between Islamic, Secular Identities In KosovoIn October 2022, the ECJ ruled that EU companies may need to justify bans on wearing religious symbols. The court was responding to a case about a Muslim woman in Belgium who was told that she could not wear a hijab to work.
Back in Kosovo, the family of the suspended student has turned for help to the Center for Peace, a local human rights NGO.
The group's leader and local imam, Labinot Maliqi, says that in the past seven years he has successfully mediated in more than 50 cases for the return to class of schoolgirls who were suspended due to their wearing of the hijab.
Maliqi told RFE/RL's Kosovo Service that "as soon as I understood the case involved an exemplary student in terms of behavior and success," he began contacting local government and school officials.
"This unjust ban not only hinders the elementary right to education of the girls who have decided to wear the head scarf, but also their freedom to practice their faith openly," Maliqi said.